Terry Ryan is being asked to do two things he’s never done before: work with a sizable wad of cash and quickly put together a winner.

You can count me in among those who think he’s the best man for the job of Twins general manager. But getting things turned around fast enough to suit an irritated fan base is going to take a miracle. Bill Smith left a mess. It will take more than a mop and a bucket to clean it up.

Ryan’s restructuring of the coaching staff shows he means business. After all, the Twins pretty much never fire anybody. They usually just shuffle employees into different positions. But Ryan served notice that lack of results will lead to change and that no one is safe from this point forward.

Barring significant trades, he’s probably going to have $30 million to $35 million freed up this winter. Some of that will go toward raises to current players. But he’s still going to have more money to work with than he’s ever had. That’s good … I think.

Ryan made a name for himself as a general manager by successfully operating a franchise under low-budget Carl Pohlad. He excelled at having replacement parts in stock when Twins players developed into stars and moved on to big money elsewhere. The highlight of the winter used to be the Rule 5 draft, when he’d pilfer a serviceable player from another organization.

He never was flashy and rarely made a big splash. He built the contending teams of the 2000s piece by piece over several years. Many of his successful trades involved moving players just ahead of their free agency. In other words, he was very good at making do. Ryan worked wonders with limited resources.

In later years, the payroll was increased, primarily as a public relations tool while the franchise was seeking a new facility. He came on board for a second stint as general manager last November and inherited a large payroll that was pretty much spoken for. Other than the money freed up by Michael Cuddyer’s departure, he didn’t have a lot of wiggle room.

He had some success signing several free agents on the fly. But he admits he wasn’t as up to speed as he is now after a full season back on the job. Now he has specific knowledge of the team’s shortcomings and a pocketful of dough. Most people expect him to plunge that money into the free-agent market and immediately turn the Twins into a contender. There’s just no way.

The Twins need a 20-game improvement just to be respectable. And while you can point to a rapid-turnaround team such as, say, Oakland, keep in mind that there was plenty of young pitching ready to come up to the A’s and make an impact. The Twins already have tried every young pitcher who can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Another problem that rarely gets mentioned is that the Twins were horrid defensively. It’s so bad that they were auditioning potential .190 hitters around second base as the season drew to a close. Anyone who could catch the ball got a tryout.

A high-end free-agent pitcher isn’t going to be enough to turn this around. The farm system has to start cranking again. The draft has been spotty in recent years, too. And an organizational hallmark, the emphasis on fundamentals and defense, is wasted on several Twins who appear to have virtually no aptitude for the game.

All this has to change. I can’t imagine it changing in the next five months. The current mess has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with bad decisions.

If Ryan is on his game, he will be able to handle this newfound financial prosperity and improve the Twins significantly for 2013. Perhaps he can get them from 90-plus losses to .500. But there is no magic pill here.

He doesn’t need a star free-agent pitcher; he needs five useful pitchers. He needs guys who can catch the ball and know how to think the game. The lineup is OK, although not particularly clutch. There’s just an awful lot to be done.

Ryan probably is the only one even qualified to attempt this turnaround. I figure he will err on the side of caution when it comes to dishing out big contracts. The Twins don’t need glitzy ornaments. They need an influx of solid, useful ballplayers.

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

Jamal Crawford turns 38 years old on Tuesday, but don't expect him to go over the top with his birthday celebration. Aging isn't really Crawford's thing. The veteran Timberwolves guard has laughed in the face of Father Time for years. Just on Sunday, two days before a birthday few NBA players see during their professional careers, Crawford scored 20 points...

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Twins second baseman Brian Dozier always makes an effort to bond with his keystone partner at shortstop. Since the second half of 2016, that has been young Jorge Polanco. So it was with great sadness that Dozier was forced to react Monday morning to news of Polanco’s 80-game steroid suspension, handed down on Sunday by Major...

If the Minnesota Vikings win the Super Bowl, credit Zygi Wilf for signing Kirk Cousins. If they don’t, blame Rick Spielman. Wilf last week guaranteed Cousins $84 million for the next three seasons in his quest to win the NFL’s Lombardi Trophy. Wilf, who has owned the Vikings for 13 years, clearly has Super Bowl fever. A day after Cousins’...

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Twins third baseman Miguel Sano has known Jorge Polanco since they were 12-year-old baseball prodigies in San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic. So, it was an emotional conversation Sunday between the two teammates after Major League Baseball announced it was suspending Polanco 80 games for testing positive for a steroid. “It’s bad right now,” Sano...

Eric Staal chuckled at a question after Monday's morning skate. With the 33-year-old Wild forward closing in on 40 goals for the third time in his career, a reporter asked whether he would have believed it if someone told him before the season that he would be flirting with that milestone now considering his career was left for the dead...